From reconciliation to canoes, Canada’s 150th is ‘celebrated’

The City of Victoria is calling 2017 ‘A year of reconciliation’ as its guide to celebrations for Canada’s 150th anniversary.

Meanwhile, the City of Vancouver has named its festivities ‘Canada 150+’ to acknowledge pre-colonial history and will include three First … Read More

Billows’ words make connections

By Cara McKenna

Dozens of people sat in attentive silence as Molly Billows read a spoken word poem written the day before last year’s U.S. election.

“We have always prepared our children to live in a world that is already … Read More

Coast Salish quest for Ladysmith students

Students at Ladysmith Secondary School (LSS) are joining government and business leaders in the community to learn more about their neighbours at Stz’uminus First Nation.

A new course – called Language and Land-based Learning – is on the curriculum at … Read More

Harbour partnership draws a full house

It was standing room only when people from Stz’uminus First Nation and Ladysmith gathered to talk about the future of the town’s waterfront on Feb 1.

The partnership between the First Nation and the town was on display at the … Read More

Signs of the times

Those ‘Stops of Interest’ signs one sees while driving along BC’s highways have taken on new meanings. That’s thanks to Joanne Hammond. She runs Pacific Heritage, a research and consulting company specializing in anthropology and archeology. But let’s let her … Read More

Louise Harry: A weaver unlike any other

The legacy of an innovative and unique basket maker—Louise (Francis) Harry—was celebrated in an intimate ceremony at the Museum at Campbell River in early February.

People from Klahoose and Homalco (Xwemahlkwu) nations gathered with friends and neighbours to honour the … Read More

First Squirrel Cove geoduck harvest ‘groundbreaking’

The headlines in the newsletter that went out to the community in early January was set in bold type:

Klahoose Shellfish Limited Partnership (KSLP) is proud to announce that there will be a harvest on our geoduck tenure just outside … Read More

Court actions loom for pipeline project

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposal may have received the thumbs-up from Canada and BC, but opponents are still hoping a court decision might stop the $6.8 billion project in its tracks.

By an 8-2 vote on Feb. 22, Vancouver … Read More

‘How did we live together before?’

By Cara McKenna

The concept of reconciliation is often thought of as improving relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. But it also means fixing things between First Nations.

That was the message from Wendy Grant-John when she told the annual … Read More

Desiree finds her desire at credit union

It didn’t take long for Desiree Samuel to decide where she wanted to work when she started hearing about the plans for Stz’uminus First Nation’s Oyster Bay development along the Trans Canada Highway just north of Ladysmith.

“When chief and … Read More